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Clive Barker
Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English writer, film director, and visual artist best known for his work in both fantasy and horror fiction. Barker came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the Books of Blood, which established him as a leading horror writer. He has since written many novels and other works, and his fiction has been adapted into films, notably the Hellraiser and Candyman series. He was the Executive Producer of the film Gods and Monsters. Barker's paintings and illustrations have been featured in galleries in the United States as well as within his own books. He has created original characters and series for comic books, and some of his more popular horror stories have been adapted to comics. His archives have been a source of material for biographies and non-fiction books containing his personal essays, discussions of his fringe theatre work, interviews, and other content. Early Life Barker was born in Liverpool, Merseyside, the son of Joan Ruby (née Revill), a painter and school welfare officer, and Leonard Barker, a personnel director for an industrial relations firm. He was educated at Dovedale Primary School, Quarry Bank High School and the University of Liverpool, where he studied English and Philosophy. When he was three years old, Barker witnessed the French skydiver Léo Valentin plummet to his death during a performance at an air show in Liverpool. Barker would later allude to Valentin in many of his stories. Writing Career Barker is an author of contemporary horror/fantasy. He began writing horror early in his career, mostly in the form of short stories (collected in Books of Blood 1 – 6) and the Faustian novel The Damnation Game (1985). Later he moved towards modern-day fantasy and urban fantasy with horror elements in Weaveworld (1987), The Great and Secret Show (1989), the world-spanning Imajica (1991), and Sacrament (1996). When the Books of Blood were first published in the United States in paperback, Stephen King was quoted on the book covers: "I have seen the future of horror and his name is Clive Barker." As influences on his writing, Barker lists Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, William S. Burroughs, William Blake and Jean Cocteau, among others. He is the writer of the best-selling Abarat series, and plans on producing two more novels in the series. Bibliography * (1985) The Damnation Game * (1986) The Hellbound Heart * (1987) Weaveworld * (1988) Cabal * (1989) The Great and Secret Show (first "Book of the Art") * (1991) Imajica * (1992) The Thief of Always * (1994) Everville (second "Book of the Art") * (1996) Sacrament * (1998) Galilee * (2001) Coldheart Canyon * (2002) Abarat (first book of the Abarat Quintet) * (2004) Days of Magic, Nights of War (second book of the Abarat Quintet) * (2007) Mister B. Gone * (2011) Absolute Midnight (third book of the Abarat Quintet) * (2015) The Scarlet Gospels Filmography * (1973) Salome * (1978) The Forbidden * (1985) Underworld * (1986) Rawhead Rex * (1987) Hellraiser * (1988) Hellbound: Hellraiser II * (1990) Nightbreed * (1992) Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth * (1992) Candyman * (1995) Lord of Illusions * (1996) Hellraiser: Bloodline * (1998) Gods and Monsters * (2002) Saint Sinner * (2006) The Plague * (2008) The Midnight Meat Train * (2009) Book of Blood * (2009) Dread Category:People